Nintendo Looking To Grow Wii U Audience To Tempt Back Third Parties

One of the most common complaints we hear from Wii U owners is the lack of third party support for the system — aside from a handful of publishers, most of the big names working in the industry have all but abandoned Nintendo's system, presumably due to the lack of earning potential.

Nintendo is aware that this is an issue which needs to be addressed sooner rather than later, and Nintendo of America Senior Director of Communication Charlie Scibetta has explained to Ars Technica exactly how the firm plans to go about it:

We want the same thing that the third parties want, which is to grow the installed base. We're confident that if we can do that by driving the installed base through first-party software, like Mario Kart 8, like Super Smash Bros., then the third-party developers will follow because then they'll see there's a large enough installed base that it's worth their investment to bring their games to our platform. So it's our job to grow that installed base to make it more attractive for them to come to our platform.

Sure, everybody would like to have games earlier, but the good thing about Nintendo is that product quality is really important to us, so we would never ship it early just to help our bottom line or our financials for the holiday season. It's much more important for us to protect the brand, the goodwill we've built up with fans over the years.

The good thing about Nintendo is we've been dedicated to gaming for over 30 years now, and it's not like we do anything else. It's not like we're going to go away from what we do and try something different. We're in for the long haul in gaming.

While it sounds like a case of stating the obvious, it's fair to say that bringing massively successful first-party titles to the Wii U will cause a jump in the number of consoles sold, which will then make the platform appear a lot more appealing to third party publishers. Does Nintendo have enough up its sleeve to drive sales, or do you think more is needed? Let us know by posting a comment below.

Damien has over a decade of professional writing experience under his belt, as well as a repulsively hairy belly. Rumours that he turned down a role in The Hobbit to work on Nintendo Life are, to the best of our knowledge, completely and utterly unfounded.

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User Comments (83)

I don't think there are enough people who want 3rd party on Nintendo consoles anyway. The main reason I have a Wii U is for the first party games. If I'd want 3rd party I'd go to my PC. That's at least how it works for one part of the audience. The other already have their PS4 or XBox One.

3rd parties have made their minds up. They aren't even looking at ways to make WiiU work for them, they just want there to be enough consoles out there that they can get away with releasing any old crap. The only 3rd party games I expect to buy are motion controlled EA Sports ones, exclusives and rarities like Project Cars or Deus Ex HR DC. Unless of course, gaming grows up a little and gets over shooteritis.

Wii u will sell 20m units in its life span. This won't be enough to bring back third party games, but most nintendo owners only want to play nintendo games anyway. I've a ps3 and I'll buy a ps4 for the rest.

A third party game such as Arkham Knight I don't care about coming to the Wii U. I'm getting a PS4 anyway and I would MUCH rather play it on that.

However, a third party game such as the LEGO games or Skylanders e.t.c where there is going to be no online, no graphical advantage, no exclusive content, and more gamepad-ey stuff, I would much rather get on the Wii U and those games ARE on the Wii U. I'm set.

Third parties will go where the money is which at this point isn't the Wii U, Nintendo need to show with games like Bayonetta 2 and Devils Third that there is a market fo rthese types of games not with MK8 and SSB4 that are guaranteed sellers.

Personally I think Western 3rd party support for the Wii U is almost over- EA, Ubi, Warner, Disney, and Activision are realistically only going to produce Lego, Skylanders, Infinity and Just Dance like titles for the system, as that's what most Wii U households (mainly families) want.

But Japanese companies such as Platinum, Sega, Namco, Capcom, and maybe even Konami fit the Wii U's audience, and may still be interested in producing for Nintendo for the right deal.

So long as third parties bring enough to the table for me to buy them, I will. I'll definitely get Bayonetta. As it stands now though, the only third party retail games I'll be getting for Wii U are Bayonetta, Watch_Dogs (if it won't be cancelled; I can see them do that even in this stage), and possibly Devil's Third and Project Cars. (I'd list Sonic Boom here too, but eh....)

So that's.. really not a whole lot, so it'd be great if Nintendo would be able to pull third party support back. Even EA support would be great. I mean, I won't buy another EA game, but for those that like their games still (for whatever reason) it's still good to have the support, at least. Hoping for the best here, but expecting... well, not the worst, but, y'know.

What a load of crap if the Wiiu has say 6 million sales so EA and all the other major third parties say not a big enough installer base but they don't get it people who are going to buy the Wiiu are Nintendo fans who like pure game play with hidden extras to prove your ability as a gamer not War games on the sixth or seventh edition because with say 14 million sales theses people still probably will not buy the same assembly line crap these third parties churn out year after year so then we get Nintendo only sells Nintendo software sounds like the Wii all over again..

What a load of crap if the Wiiu has say 6 million sales so EA and all the other major third parties say not a big enough installer base but they don't get it people who are going to buy the Wiiu are Nintendo fans who like pure game play with hidden extras to prove your ability as a gamer not War games on the sixth or seventh edition because with say 14 million sales theses people still probably will not buy the same assembly line crap these third parties churn out year after year so then we get Nintendo only sells Nintendo software sounds like the Wii all over again..

3rd Party? Bah, we don't need them if Nintendo continue to release quality and variety as they do. Why give up income stream space to 3rd party? Do not allow shovelware on the system. Just keep the variety up to appeal to everyone in the gaming world. (I bought an xbox purely for Gears and World of tanks. Well, gears judgement didn't have Horde mode and Wot had A crappy in game purchase system that I hated so xbox is now sold!)

It didnt work for the Wii so its not going to work for the Wii U....but of course they have to say this.The best thing Nintendo can do at this point is keep releasing great 1st party software and keep their loyal following satisfied until they hit the reset button next gen.

I'd like 3rd party games to play on the Wii U since the majority of my games for it are made by 3rd parties, but I have no issue with what the Wii U is right now.

@AlexOlney yeah they're only loyal to money. I'm surprised quite how bad the uptake of 3rd party games has been on Wii U but I guess that is because there was only one exclusive and it sold well but Ubisoft still managed to lose money on it.

If Nintendo can keep picking interesting games to fund then I can tolerate only buying Nintendo and indie but I'd like to see them go for the stuff that we're missing out on now such as a fun GTA clone.

@gunit1099 I think EA will be back with a few ports of their sports games at some point. They pretty much did the same thing with the N64. I wish Nintendo had struck a deal with Konami to make a new ISS as good as ISS98 was on N64.

I feel it's kind of too late for 3rd parties now. Wii U would have got more 360/PS3 ports if the sales had been higher, but I imagine most games that are entering development now (stuff 2-3 years from release) will be PS4/Xbone games and too much for the Wii U, so it would be just like the Wii, with the audience there but the games top advanced for the hardware.

People say Nintendo doesn't need 3rd parties, but Nintendo had relied on those royalties in the past. I'd be shocked if Mario 3D World and Pikmin 3 made any money at all, and both probably lost Nintendo quite a bit. In the past it's been fine as royalties from 3rd parties made up the shortfall, but we don't want to get into a situation where Nintendo only makes guaranteed sellers or we're going to be seeing a lot more 2D Mario.

@Peach64 this. The whole discussion of third party and Wii U is close to becoming moot since third party development will be entirely for PS4/Xbone/PC by 2016.

Nintendo's best option for "third party" software is to keep financing/publishing projects like Bayonetta, stuff that is out of their comfort zone but appeals to a certain audience. I personally think Devil's Third looks terrible, but Nintendo publishing it is a smart move PR-wise since it makes it look like Wii U has at least some third-party support and can cater to the M for Mature crowd.

The truth of the matter is 3rd party games have sold poorly on the Wii U and I think it's mainly due to the type of audience Nintendo attracts plus the fact that these games are not promoted anywhere and there are even no demos on the Wii U eshop. This is baffling as there is no way you can get to know how great a game is, unless you play it and it needs to be taken into account that not many people follow gaming websites or Nintendo Directs, so a release of a game like ACIV, means nothing to the average Wii U owner.

It's sad because if 3rds parties weren't lazy they could make great use of the Gamepad and, besides graphics, the Wii U version of a multiplatform game could be the best on Wii U. Just imagine the possibilites with GTA V!!

So yeah, Nintendo will make the right decisions to increase console sales, but we will never get the great games that will be coming for PS4 and Xbone. Maybe, just maybe, we will get more exclusives like Lego City and what they initially planned to do with Rayman Legends.

"Sure, everybody would like to have games earlier, but the good thing about Nintendo is that product quality is really important to us, so we would never ship it early just to help our bottom line or our financials for the holiday season."

There is a lot of consumers who havent bought a next gen console yet...if nintendo can improve the wii u situation and it starts to get more third party support, to the point where you could find batman arkham knight on wii u, i think many late adopters type of consumers could choose the wii u as their console, for being the cheapest and with more exclusives...but, of course, this is a lot of ifs...

@MAN1AC "It didnt work for the Wii so its not going to work for the Wii U....but of course they have to say this.The best thing Nintendo can do at this point is keep releasing great 1st party software and keep their loyal following satisfied until they hit the reset button next gen."True & true & true.

I really don't think hardware plays much of a factor. NES games and all those titles up to the PS2 were often built with technological workarounds and to squeeze the most out a systems unique merits and to avoid technical difficulty, like layering sprites.

Really, what this boils down to is money loyalty from third parties. The gaming practices of old have gone to graphical power and how much we can cram in with little effort.

What's worst Sony being honest and saying only indies are coming to Vita or Nintendo blatantly lying when they have to know they will never get third party support in the Wii U..... I honestly don't know which of the two is wrost

You what they could also do? Partner up with 3rd parties to bring their new releases to their system. Because we all know when it comes to Nintendo version of Multiplatform games 3rd parties usually put minimum effort becausessb they barely know how to use it. They make them seem underpowered yet when Nintendo releases a game it looks beautiful. Just look at their current partnerships

I finally bought a ps4. I was super excited when I turned it on but I was quite disappointed after playing with it for a while. The game downloads take longer than my PS3. It was only less than 3 gigabytes and it took 2 hours. My Wii U would take an hour to finish. I don't know what's wrong as they're all using the same wifi connection. I thought the PS4 would be the fastest since it's more powerful but that doesn't seem to be the case. I don't find anything special about the PS4...yet so I still favor my PS3. PS2 is still king of the Sony consoles.

If only third party devs aren't so lazy giving the Wii U runned down versions. Mostly I buy Wii U exclusives and games that involve the gamepad as a map. I actually have more exclusives on my Wii U than my PS3.

Good to hear. Nintendo needs third-party support. They may not get much for the Wii U but they can be building relationships for their next machine.

There's an opportunity there. Development of AAA games gets more expensive all the time. If Nintendo can fix their hardware and online infrastructure so adding another format costs as little as possible it'll be irresistible to publishers. A powerful machine with the big third-party games and Nintendo's own output would be a very attractive prospect

@Nintenjoe64 The trend (Started by Ubisoft) is if you wait you can get any 3rd party game for next to nothing. Customers are not loyal either. (I am not either other than for niche exclusives that I do get ASAP).

@unrandomsam Ubisoft have pretty much convinced me never to buy one of their games until 2 months after release. I think I could buy all of their decent Wii U games that are available at the moment for the same price as one of their new ones.

Nintendo's finally thinking about the third parties, but is too late now they left and they ain't coming back.But maybe you could get ubisoft to see there games will sell on the wiiu and have some sense to make Zombiu 2? Not assassins creed, far cry or watchdogs which we will see annually releases now. Cause that's all they have now.

For western developers, it really is just a matter of hardware. They want the beefiest toys to show off how visually impressive their new 100 million dollar game is with CG trailers. Nintendo will never get those third parties back.

It's not just that, it's business. Yes, a lot developers want to work on the most powerful hardware because the results of their work look better. But money talks. If there are three machines very similar so you can share the development costs between them formats it makes sense to do that.

Then there's a fourth machine which is architecturally different and relatively under-powered so it needs time and effort to produce an inferior version which, because it's inferior, won't sell. From a business perspective, Nintendo have made the Wii U very unattractive. They've painted themselves into a corner but hopefully they'll learn from those mistakes next generation.

As some people have already said, 3rd parties have made up their minds. They will put little to no effort in making games for Wii-U. The best thing Nintendo can do is to buy out Capcom and start more collaborations with 3rd parties that are willing to do so ( e.g. Hyrule Warriors).

@Peach64 - It doesn't really matter that much that Nintendo is losing money. Pikimin 3, Super Mario 3D World, W101, etc. released 1st party games' main purpose wasn't to sell 3 million copies by now. Those games were made to rack up any amount of consoles sales they can. Nintendo does want those games to sell well, obviously, but their main purpose for now, is to make the platform have a game that a anyone can buy the platform for.
If Nintendo was really concerned about losing money, they wouldn't be paying 3rd parties for exclusive games, and they wouldn't be puting out all the games they have.

At this point, selling 100,000 consoles is more important than selling 1,000,000 copies of whatever software.

As long as Xbox One and PS4 are getting games that are Xbox 360 and PS3, it doesn't really do much to separate them from the same target audience as Wii U had in its first year, which means it's not too late. I'm not saying the games Xbox One and PS4 are getting are useless, but they aren't even near to what the consoles could be getting. That buys Nintendo time, and I don't think anyone really has a choice of what games these consoles are getting(7th gen), for the time being.

@electrolite77 It's also from a stigma. Nintendo is seen as a kiddie company, despite Bayonetta 2 and Devils Third. Western third parties won't put their games on Nintendo platforms because of clashing images that result in poor sales. Doesn't matter if the hardware is similar to the others, if your game doesn't sell well on the platform because of differing images, you aren't going to put the game on that platform.

Wii U being different in architecture and less powerful isn't the issue. It's the image of Nintendo platforms. They won't get western third party support unless that image changes, which would screw Nintendo as they'd be identical to the others.

Very simple. I only use my Wii U and 3DS for first party. Nintendo is king for first parties, PC king for third party. No doubt about it. Who cares about third party on the Wii U? We just want SSB4 to come out and we'll all be happy. Well, most of us.

If we're talking about "mature" AAA 3rd party games, nothing will ever change. Ever. EVER. The market has shifted from Nintendo platforms, and as a result there is not enough gamers left on Nintendo platforms who are interested in those titles. They TRIED bringing those types of games, and nobody bought them. It's that simple. Hardware specs aint gonna change the fact that nobody wants to buy the games in the first place. Not enough anyways. And you can't bring games to a system if nobody wants them.

Some people just can't seem to comprehend this. Hardware specs is not a "magic bullet" that will all of a sudden make every gamer want to buy mature AAA 3rd party games on Wii U. The system could be TWICE as powerful as rival consoles, and it STILL won't matter. Anyone with common sense knows this. Because simply providing a platform capable of easy ports is NOT going to magically make gamers want games that they were not interested in, are not interested in, and will never BE interested in.

Wii U is right on par with the PS3 and 360- if POWER is what's holding back developers, why the *** aren't all these PS3 and 360 games releasing on Wii U? Oh, that's right, because they don't SELL. They don't SELL, because nobody WANTS them. Being on par with PS3/360 hasn't done squat to bring games, and were the Wii U to be on par with PS4/X1, that wouldn't do squat either. It's simple supply and demand. Where there is no demand, there will be no supply. This is basic stuff, not high level economics.

Pushmo World just released yesterday. I highly recommend it. Then we have Shovel Knight releasing next Thursday. This is one of the most anticipated games of the year- don't let it's retro aesthetic fool you. We ALSO get Wii Sports Club next Thursday as well, and the physical version will be releasing next month (July 25th I believe?). Then in September it's Hyrule Warriors, followed by Bayonetta, Bayonetta 2, and Smash Bros 3DS in October (as well as a few others like Sonic Boom I'm sure).

If it makes you feel any better, there's not much on any system worth buying this summer. I think the only PS4 games I'm getting between now and then are the port of Last of Us and uh, I think Lords of the Fallen (skipping Natural Doctrine in favor of Vita version). And Xbox One, well, nothing til Sunset Overdrive right before Halloween (getting Lords of the Fallen on PS4). Vita, I think it's got Freedom Wars coming SOME time this summer (no release date yet), and Natural Doctrine mid-September.

So yeah, it's the same story all around. Summers are just slow for games.

The solution to the problem is so obvious yet somehow Nintendo has been so blinded by its oldschool livinig room sociality thinking for years; It's called strong, hardware, not cutting corners to sell cheap hardware, thus putting severely limiting restraints and hesitation on those developers you want back. Otherwise, those upper-class 3rd pary devs will continue to cater to the upperclass companies they know they can rely on. Now I'm not saying Nintendo's hardweare isn't reliable these days, but compared to XBox or PlayStation brands, they truly are the underdog regardless of their long term history, in which they've only ever been so successful because of what little competition they had back then, so it was never an issue. But these days, I still say it's high time theyr needto think outsdie the box of this 'living room" concept for the younger generation growing attatched to XBox or PlayStation. After all, you get what you pay for; If you buy cheaper hardware to save some $, then don't expect the experiences to to grow any higher unless you're willing to pay more. And believe me I say it with some experience because I game on each from the big 3, and I try to balance them out which honestly isn't very easily, and each isn't withut their strengths and weaknesses, its own unique charm, either.

The way the trend is moving right now is showing that Nintendo is the Japanese developer's salvation. Devil's Third was going to be published by THQ, but they folded and Valhalla was picked up by Nintendo instead. Bayonetta didn't have much of a future because the Ponys and Xbots just want "next-gen" shooters, so Nintendo picked up Platinum as well. Since Capcom seems to be on the verge of folding, it wouldn't surprise me if Nintendo picked them up too. Konami as well since the only titles I've seen from them lately are either MGS, Castlevania LoS or sports games. After E3 this year, I honestly feel like there's a renaissance in the works for Nintendo. Think the SNES-N64 era. I'm just glad Nintendo got all of those naysaying ninnies to shut the Hell up.

@DaveGX So...in other words, you're saying graphics and gimmicks over games? No thanks. I can deal with load times. I grew up on that. I'm not a little kid who has to have his virtual fix every three seconds.

I think the image is part of it too but like the hardware differential, can be fixed. Nintendo releasing things like the games you mentioned indicates that Nintendo know that.

Reduce the extra development costs and the risk is less, so the danger of not selling due to Nintendo's perceived image is less. Nintendo release more (and I sigh as I put this but can't think of a better word) 'mature' games and the customer base will shift to some degree. If Nintendo keep doing that at the launch of their next machine, it shifts further. If Nintendo at some point are willing to invest in third-party exclusives, even better.

The way the market is going (contracting hugely in retail terms) to me represents opportunity for Nintendo rather than a dead end. They've got first and second party and are making inroads into the Indie scene, it's just the third party issue.

@kensredemption Yes. To everything you said. The Capcom buy just needs to happen. They have an amazing relationship with Capcom. Monster Hunter, Phoneix Wright, Mega Man in Smash. It would be crazy for Nintendo not to buy them. This way they literary wouldn't need 3rd parties. It would be insane.

@electrolite77 Perhaps. They just need to make sure they don't try to become what they're not. Stay quirky and fun, but still have the "mature" games to offer as well. Finding that balance is key.

@kensredemption Nintendo doesn't own Platinum. Don't think they own Valhalla either (correct me if I'm wrong on that). Platinum is making Scalebound exclusively for XB1. Nintendo should definitely buy Capcom though. I think Konami is doing alright financially, but Square Enix might end up where Capcom is right now in a few years depending on whether FFXV and KH3 sell well enough to break even, let alone make profit.

@kensredemption: 1st off, i never said anything about graphics, although it honestly wouldn't hurt Nintendo to take the initiate for a changve and take a step outsdie their comfort zone if they ever expect to gain back their so-desired 3rd party support. You simply can't sell what to the upperclass developers expectations with cheap hardware, simple as that. 2nd, define gimmick, because last I checked, 3D and motion at least where VR is concerned, are growing increasingly popular (Maybe not so much yet in gaming but in time it will progress and develop further) and won't be phased out anytime soon even where TV/movies are concerned, and would indefinittely work hand in hand for the future of gaming. Speaking of gimmicks, from your perspective, 3DS an, Wii remote, and nunchuck mightas well be gimmicks, but I'm not judging them as such seengs how i have no major complaints, maybbe minial whre "stereoscopic" 3D is concerned, (but that's all) and I'm all for 3D, plus any and every immersive experiences as possible because they're not gimmicks. Besides, who ever said or implied gimmicks over gaming, anyway? Certainly not me. Last thing, bebcause I game on 1 of each from the big 3 and try to balance out my game play weith each, no offense, but how exactly are "Ponys" and "Xbots" supposed to be puns/shuns on XBox and PlayStation gamers? Sounds rather silly if you ask me.

Wii U will probably get the odd AAA title release, probably later then on the PS4/One. But as everyone says its main focus is that these systems are designed for selling their own published content.

Nintendo has never released a system, where the top selling title was 3rd party published. I think that says it all really.

They care about their install base and selling their own content and then 3rd parties can join in. Which is how really a platform/publisher should see things. Microsoft and Sony have ulterior motives, that's got to do with these systems being mass media living room hubs. Nintendo is fighting against that sort of mentally.

Nintendo can sell a lot more if they make a better deals with the stores. Today i was in Best Buy, my intention was check the smash. And not only dont have the smach, they dont have the wiiu to make the sample. In the another hand, all the place was with PS4 and xbox posters and machines.. And Best buy must be the partner of nintendo for show smash.. This type of things also happened in gamespot, ign and another webs... in another words is a boycot..

@Peach64 I'd agree with you...except I'm pretty sure if the Wii U doesn't have enough sales for the third parties, neither will the PS4 or One. There are 160 million potential buyers on PS3 and 360... I don't think third parties will let those go so quickly...as can be seen with Watch_Dogs, Wolfenstein, Destiny, Dark Souls II, Call of Duty, Mortal Kombat X, Shadow of Mordor, and Dragon Age Inquisition.

On the other hand, though, it's not like the games that will be released on the Wii U without third parties will be bad. I have a lot of fun with Nintendo Land, Lego City, Super Mario 3D World, and Wind Waker.

The only third party game I am interested in at the moment is Beyond Good and Evil 2, which at this point I feel is not going to happen. Star Wars Battlefront would be nice too, but it's not going to be released on any of the consoles I currently own, especially not Wii U.

If Third parties could be more creative with the system since it has something PS4 and Xbone dont have with the gamepad, maybe they would sell.

Unless amiibo is a massive success that draws in lots of new kids who buy a Wii U purely for the figures then I don't see how Nintendo is really going to grow the Wii U audience significantly for the rest of 2014 or most of 2015 based on what I've seen over the last few days or so.

Outside of amiibo Nintendo has a handful of good-great upcoming games that are mostly going to appeal to current Wii U owners and a few lapsed Nintendo gamers and that's about it from what I can see.

Do the third parties even have any toes left to shoot off? Borderlands and Civ 5 should of been on the Wii U because the gamepad would make them the best versions out there by a long shot but instead they do a crappy vita port with Borderlands and absolutely nothing with Civ 5. It wasn't that long ago the third parties were shouting from the rooftops about how revolutionary the Kinect would be and not even a year in Microsoft has already abandoned it.

This again... 3rd parties on Wii U... Hmm... It's all a balancing act to me. It could happen and then it couldn't. I still think an managerial restructuring would do contemporary Nintendo some good because they're still coasting on a largely outdated formula in the 21st century. I don't have a Wii U so all this doesn't bother me (and makes me party of the problem too. I'm OK with that.). We'll see what happens.

There are certainly a few games and franchises I'd love to see on Wii U. I don't believe that 3rd parties are coming back though, regardless of userbase. The 3ds is the best selling platform this gen yet it doesn't have great third party support. A bigger user base means we will continue to get the Lego and Just Dance games etc. but that's about it IMHO.